Simon John Wolstencroft is an English rock drummer, best known for playing with the Fall from 1986 to 1997. He also played with early incarnations of The Smiths and The Stone Roses.
Wolstencroft was a member of the Patrol, an early incarnation of the Stone Roses, with childhood friends Ian Brown and John Squire. He was also the drummer for Freak Party which featured Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke. In Songs That Saved Your Life, Marr states that Wolstencroft declined to join the then upcoming the Smiths as he did not like Morrissey's voice. In his subsequent memoir Set The Boy Free, Marr states that Morrissey was reluctant to take on drummer Mike Joyce as he was still hankering after having Wolstencroft in the band. Wolstencroft returned briefly to play with Ian Brown and John Squire in the nascent Stone Roses before taking a short-lived stint with Terry Hall's band the Colourfield.
The Fall
In 1985 Wolstencroft formed the Weeds with friend Andrew Berry and released the single 'China Doll' on the In Tape label. Wolstencroft reveals in his memoir that when the Weeds played support to the Fall at Harlesden Mean Fiddler, a blazing row between Mark E. Smith and Fall drummer Karl Burns led to Smith offering Wolstencroft the stool in the Fall. Wolstencroft joined the Fall in time to play on most of the group's Bend Sinister album, and remained in the band for over a decade, occasionally adding keyboards and programming to his role as well as co-writing the group's only self-penned Top 40 single, "Free Range", from their album. He left the band following a dispute over the recording of the Levitate album.
Later career
In 1996, Wolstencroft had a daughter, Emily Wolstencroft. After this, he went on to reunite with Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, performing and co-writing on his Golden Greats album in 1999. He toured with Sheffield-based electronica outfit, I-Monster, followed by a stint with Jez Kerr of A Certain Ratio in the Family Bizarre before joining ex 808 State player Darren Partington's band, Big Unit. Wolstencroft made a guest appearance on drums for I, Ludicrous at the Polyfest festival and recorded an album playing drums for One Manc Banned. In 2016, Wolstencroft recorded a session for Neville Staple on the 'Take Out The War' track with Juliette Ashby and worked with producer Mike Bennett on Stemz and a reworking of some early Freak Party recordings which incorporated Angie Brown on vocals and Craig Gannon on additional guitar. In the same year he made his acting debut in a video for the Tim Burgess & Peter Gordon song "Say" directed by Wolstencroft's nephew, Nico Mirallegro. Wolstencroft started a new band the G-O-D with long-time friend Chris Bridgett in 2015. They released an EP 'Grafters Ov Denton' in 2017.
You Can Drum But You Can't Hide
Wolstencroft's memoir You Can Drum But You Can't Hide was originally published by Strata Books in 2014 and an updated edition was published in 2017 by Route Publishing. The book is a comprehensive overview of his career in which he reveals a 30-year drug habit which he managed to keep secret from most of his colleagues and friends. He talked about the book at the 2014 and 2016 Louder Than Wordsliterary festival and said that inspiration for writing his memoir came when a contestant on Mastermind correctly identified him as the original drummer of the Smiths.
